This sounds like the Jewish commandments. The Jews made that up and the Vedic pundits made this one up.
The lowest caste on the ladder had a hard time of it because of poverty ,untouhability , exploitation and violence against them . And Karma was used as the excuse to keep them servile and subservient to the upper three castes.
They were told that they suffered because of past misdeeds in their previous lives for which they had the misfortune to be born in the Sudhra caste. So going back to point one it had this Ryder attached.
Agreed that there are idealistic lessons to be learned from it. Just as in the commandments. But Karma was attached to Mokhsha...the relief from the cycle of birth and death. Punishment and reward!